Shalom

I have longed for thy salvation, O L-RD; and thy Torah is my delight. Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; and let thy judgments help me. I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments. Psalm 119:174-176

13 February 2013

As you well know by now, I'm a blogging activist for women to have rights and freedom. This may garner me many labels. I don't care. What I do care about is, people living in safety regardless of their gender or genitalia, simply because G-d made us who and how we are, and we deserve to be treated simply as children of G-d; handled and loved with grace.

The VDay Movement has been around for 15 years. Due to my very closed fundamentalist circle, and the ideas that were shoved down my throat for so many years, I never heard of it until this week.

I believe what they are doing is wonderful, and quite complementary to the efforts I've been making on my blog for the last few months. Therefore, I will be sharing what they are up to today. :)

Trigger warning - Various Forms of Abuse.

*Trigger Warning* A film by @EveEnsler and Tony Stroebel.
Please spread far and wide w/this tweet: Rise up on 2-14 to end Violence against Women in a global event! @vday http://onebillionrising.org/

1 in 3 women on the planet is raped or beaten in her lifetime. That is
ONE BILLION women. On 14 February 2013 V-Day is inviting ONE BILLION
women and those who love them to WALK OUT, DANCE, RISE UP, and DEMAND an
end to this violence. ONE BILLION RISING will move the earth,
activating women and men across every country. We want the world to see
our collective strength, our numbers and our solidarity across borders.
Tell the world why you're rising on 14 February 2013 at
onebillionrising.org. What does ONE BILLION look like? On 14 February,
it will look like a REVOLUTION.http://www.onebillionrising.org/

If you go to the Vday Youtube page, you will find several operations going on in Germany for this event, and several MPs discussing the issue. You can also find a TV interview in German (3 parts) about the issue here:

Eve Ensler: Tell me about One Billion Rising. Anne Hathaway: It’s hard to wrap my head around the
fact that a billion women have been raped or beaten, just the enormity
of that. When I was in college, I’d heard that one in four women would
be raped, and I thought, God, that means I must know someone who was
raped. Sure enough, I found out a week later that a friend had been. A
billion is too big because one is too big.http://www.glamour.com/entertainment/blogs/obsessed/2012/12/anne-hathaway-talks-about-her.html

I am rising here on my blog and on Google+. Are you rising with women on Vday? Feel free to leave a note in the comments.

12 February 2013

Last tuesday (06.02.2013) was the International Day of Zero Tolerance on
Female Genital Mutilation. Every year, Three million girls and women are subjected to FGM. That means every eleven seconds, a girl is harmed by FGM. That's 8000 girls per day.

The practice of FGM violates:

Right to physical and mental integrity

Right to highest attainable standard of health

Right to be free from all forms of discrimination against women (including violence against women)

Right to freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment

the need for later surgeries. For example, the FGM procedure that
seals or narrows a vaginal opening (type 3 above) needs to be cut open
later to allow for sexual intercourse and childbirth. Sometimes it is
stitched again several times, including after childbirth, hence the
woman goes through repeated opening and closing procedures, further
increasing and repeated both immediate and long-term risks.WHO: Female genital mutilation

In various cultures there are many "justifications"
for these practices. A girl who is not circumcised is considered
"unclean" by local villagers and therefore unmarriageable.
A girl who does not have her clitoris removed is considered a great
danger and ultimately fatal to a man if her clitoris touches his
penis.
One of the most common explanations of FGC is local custom. Women
are often heard saying that they are unwilling to change these
customs since they have always done it this way and are not about
to change. Oftentimes the practitioners are kept ignorant of the
real implications of FGC, and the extreme health risks that it
represents.
Family honor, cleanliness, protection against spells, insurance
of virginity and faithfulness to the husband, or simply terrorizing
women out of sex are sometimes used as excuses for the practice
of FGC.FGMEducation

FGM/C is a fundamental violation of the rights of girls. It is
discriminatory and violates the rights to equal opportunities and
health, and the right to live free from violence, injury, abuse,
torture and cruel or inhuman and degrading treatment. In addition to
this, it violates the right to protection from harmful traditional
practices, and the right to make decisions concerning
reproduction. These rights are protected in international law. With Heart against FGM

It is only relatively recently that FGM has been recognized
internationally as a violation of the human rights of girls and women.
Sweden was the first Western country to outlaw FGM, followed in 1985 by the UK.
In the United States it became illegal in 1997, and in the same
year the WHO issued a joint statement with the United Nations
Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
against the practice. FGM is a crime in many countries now.News.Discovery.Com

On November 26th, 2012, in a resolution sponsored by 110 of the United Nations' 193 member states, a UN committee called for member states to ban the practice of FGM. [74] On December 21st, 2012, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously passed a resolution banning the practice of FGM. [75]Wikipedia

Worldwide, the battle against FGM is far from over. It is also being
fought by Jawahir Cumar from her new home in Germany. She became a
victim of FGM at the age of five in her homeland, Somalia. Today, in
the German city of Düsseldorf, she counsels women who have suffered a
similar fate. "These women suffer pain during sexual intercourse, while
urinating, during menstruation; they endure pain every single day."
Jawahir Cumar's organization is called "Stop Mutilation" and offers
women victims a gynaecological examination free of charge. Cumar also
works to increase public awareness of the negative effects of FGM. Deutsche Welle: Fighting female genital mutilation in Africa

"In Somalia, it's taboo to go against female circumcision. But
when I came to England I started to realise that the kind of tradition
we were abiding by is not the path that human beings should follow," she
says.
Supported by her teachers, first at her secondary school
and now at her sixth-form college, she is speaking out to her fellow
students about the horrors of FGM, as well as using articles such as
this and Facebook to raise awareness.
"There are thousands of
girls living in the UK who have undergone FGM. Much more needs to be
done to raise awareness about this and prevent it happening to more
girls," she says. "I want to help other girls who might be at risk of
FGM by condemning it as much as I can."The Guardian UK: Female genital mutilation: 'I want to help other girls'

Midwives could be asked routinely to raise the issue of female
genital mutilation with pregnant women from communities where the
practice is prevalent.
The Department of Health is looking at
gathering data on the numbers who have been illegally mutilated in an
attempt to safeguard children and potentially increase the number of
prosecutions.
Campaigners applaud the move, pointing out that often women are not examined during pregnancy and so the first time NHS professionals are aware that a woman has been cut is during childbirth, when it may be too late to give her the help she needs.
It is also hoped that collecting the data will help to identify the baby girls at birth who may be at risk in the future.The Guardian UK: Female genital mutilation questions could be raised by midwives

“Empowered women and girls are key to breaking the cycle of
discrimination and violence and for the promotion and protection of
human rights, including sexual and reproductive health and reproductive
rights,” said Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of UNFPA.
“Working with governments and civil societies, UNFPA and UNICEF have
successfully implemented a human rights-based and culturally sensitive
approach to ending FGM/C.”
The UNFPA and UNICEF Executive Directors noted that if the political
will expressed in the General Assembly resolution is translated into
concrete investments, FGM/C – a serious violation of the rights of girls
and women – could become a vestige of the past. They echoed the
resolution’s call for a coordinated approach that promotes positive
social change at community, national, regional and international levels.
Fewer girls threatened by Female Genital Mutilation

I first heard of Waris Dirie on ABC News 20/20 "A Healing Journey: Waris Dirie" several years ago. I am not entirely certain, but I believe she also did an Oprah interview and a Reader's Digest interview, prior to authoring three books and having a movie made about her. Below are two interviews with Waris about FGM. I have the utmost respect for Waris... and I'm forever glad for her bringing FGM to the forefront of western women's minds.

11 February 2013

I overheard some interesting news last week that is certainly worth sharing. Please be in prayer for this young woman and her family. If Megan and Grace can leave... there is more hope for there to be freedom and this insanity (WBC) to stop.

The act of leaving Westboro is as weird as the church itself. Sometimes it’s
described as a shunning process, but that’s not entirely apt. It is, in the
eyes of the remaining members, a sort of death, but it’s a gentle one, because
the carcass isn’t just dumped or ignored. One church member, who has lost two
of his kids to the outside world, told me that he still loved them and that he
set them up as best they could with what they’d need to start their new
lives—some money, some household goods, even a car.

Up until now, our names have been
synonymous with “God Hates Fags.” Any twelve-year-old with a cell phone
could find out what we did. We hope Ms. Kyle was right about the other
part, too, though – that everything sticks – and that the changes we
make in our lives will speak for themselves.